Korvosa

The cards dealt you

The Crimson Throne #1

17

JAN/16

In the first episode of the Crimson Throne, each of the antagonists in this twisted tale received a Harrow card suggesting they had an opportunity to take revenge on (or bring to justice) Gaedren Lamm a man who has at one time or another brought great harm upon them.

Following the directions on the mysterious cards the disparate group met each other for the first time in a small house at 3 Lancet Street, (Near the Bailers Retreat pub, West Dock, Midland).

It is here that they meet a Varisian woman named Zellara, a fortune teller who, a year ago, lost her only son to Lamm. After her Harrow deck (her only source of income and an heirloom handed down to her by her mother) was pick-pocketed by one of Lamm’s Little Lambs, Zellara’s son Eran took it upon himself to get back the deck. He was murdered by Gaedren’s thugs and his head and hands were returned to Zellara in a box as a gift and a threat. Zellara went to the Korvosan Guard, but they had little additional time or resources to devote to Lamm. The Guard told her, “We know he’s trouble, and we’re doing the best we can to find him—sorry for your loss, but that’s all we can do for you now.”

Frustrated, desperate, and harboring a growing need for revenge, Zellara took it upon herself to track down Lamm, drawing upon the Harrow’s divination’s for aid. Her latent magical skill, combined with her persistence and obsession, unfortunately gave her results. She discovered the location of Gaedren’s current hideout but lacked the power to deal with him. Instead she used her divination’s to seek others who would share her desire for revenge and summoned each of you.

Zellara provides you with the location of Lamm (The Old Fishery, Westpier 17, West Dock, Midland) and requests you deal him swift justice and if possible return her harrow cards to her. Before you leave she performs a Harrowing, an ancient Varisian magic that reveals the future and helps to shape it, it reveals chaos and confusion is coming.

The group head to the old fishery at dawn, encountering the Red Hand street gang on the way, and they use the old rotten pier to sneak into the fishery from the river instead of the secure land side. Once inside they encounter an dangerous crocodile, defenseless children and bomb wielding alchemists, but with the help of the healing energy of Pharasma the group survive to find Gaedren has escaped into Old Korvosa, The Alchemist Yargin, strikes a deal (Imprisonment instead of death) and reveals Gaedrin has probably made a run for a rowdy Tavern, the Sticky Mermaid: Old Dock, Old Korvosa.

In the dim and wet morning light the group splits up, Cleric Reiyne takes the little lambs back to her church to be tended and given safety while the rest of the group chase Lamm across the town, a journey of an hour or more into the roughest part of the city and the gang territories of the infamous Dusters.

During this journey the treasure looted from the fishery is examined. Each of these treasures is wrapped in cloth and tied shut with twine. The treasures include a narrow teak cigar case inlaid with tiny bits of jade worth 25 gp, a 2-pound gold ingot worth 100 gp bearing the Cheliax coat of arms, a miniature gold crown worth 350 gp, a fist-sized scrimshaw carving of a kraken with garnets for eyes worth 200 gp, a silver ring worth 150 gp bearing the inscription “For Emmah—the light in my nights,” a highly realistic and highly scandalous ivory figurine of two entwined succubi worth 450 gp, a masterwork shuriken, an adamantine arrowhead, an abalone-shell holy symbol of Shelyn worth 300 gp, a tiny glass tube containing a dose of oil of keen edge, an obsidian wand of magic missile (23 charges), a crystalline vial (itself worth 50 gp) containing a dose of silversheen, and a bejeweled brooch with a broken clasp.

Even to an untrained eye, this brooch is obviously the most valuable object in the entire collection. The circular gold brooch depicts a pseudodragon and an imp coiled around each other in an almost yin-yang pattern. The pseudodragon’s eye is an amethyst, while the imp’s eye is an emerald. The brooch itself is worth 1,000 gp, but more importantly, it is quickly recognized as the possession of Queen Ileosa herself.

One last item the hatbox actually contains something shocking— Zellara’s severed head, poorly preserved and decorated with unsightly makeup in a crude attempt to give her sagging flesh the semblance of life. She must have been dead for weeks. Her Harrow deck sits in a smaller wooden box under the stump of her neck.

The Sticky Mermaid lives up to its reputation, but the barman is quickly bribed into revealing Lamm’s location. An all to brief confrontation see’s Lamb caught, but as the group questions him seeking answers to and reasons for the pain they suffered, Lamm stealthily attempts an escape, shooting [AdamH] with a poisoned bolt. [Dave] reacts instantly and his deadly hammer crushes Lamm like a broken rotten egg.

The group realize there is nothing more to be found here so decide to return to Zellara’s, but as the step outside they step into chaos…